A stock character in many early American legends, the mountain man was a male trapper and explorer who lived alone in the remote wilderness. Mountain men were most commonly found in the Rocky Mountains of North America from about 1810 through the 1880s, with the highest numbers in the middle of the century. While they were primarily trappers harvesting beaver pelts, these men were instrumental in locating and opening trails for emigration into western territories. As the fur industry floundered in the 1840s, many mountain men found employment as army scouts or wagon train guides, or by establishing trading posts along the routes to the West. Legends of the feats of the mountain men persist to the present day, largely because there was a high degree of truth in the tales passed down over time.
Legends
The mountain man’s life revolved around the seasons and the climate. Men trapped beavers in the fall and spring, but the spring was more profitable because the pelts still had their winter thickness. Once pelt quality deteriorated, the men gathered at the summer rendezvous in July. The rendezvous tradition began in 1825 by General William Ashley’s men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. It began as a practical gathering to trade pelts for supplies and reorganize trapping units, but evolved into a month-long carnival in the middle of the wilderness. The rendezvous attracted women, children, Native Americans, Canadians, and random travelers in addition to the trappers and traders.
The rendezvous included horse and running races, games, dancing, singing, target shooting, gambling, drinking, storytelling, and other carousing. Stories of adventures in wild and unknown places, confrontations with grizzly bears and other wildlife, and encounters with friendly or hostile natives held audiences enthralled. The most legendary mountain men had their exploits published in books and magazines, becoming known to the general public in the East. While the lives of many mountain men faded into obscurity, others left remarkable tales as their legacy.
Kit Carson (1809–1868) began his career as a trapper. After the collapse of the fur trade, he explored the West through the Rocky Mountains to California. He lived among and married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes and achieved renown as a guide. Stories of his life as a mountain man turned him into a hero-figure. Another well-known mountain man was Jim Bridger (1804–1881). An explorer of the Upper Missouri, he was among the first Europeans to see Great Salt Lake. He established Fort Bridger in 1843 in southwestern Wyoming, which served as a major hub for western expansion and native trade. Bridger loved to tell tall tales about his adventures to shock easterners and tenderfeet passing through. He was known for his expertise in communicating with native groups and served as an interpreter for military commanders and surveying excursions.
John Colter (1774–1812) was one of the earliest mountain men. A member of Lewis and Clark’s expedition, he later became the first European to see the geysers in Yellowstone National Park. His capture by the fierce Blackfeet tribe and narrow escape leaving him alone and naked in the wilderness became the legend known as “Colter’s Run.” Hugh Glass (1780–1833) was a famous folk hero who returned from the dead. The book Lord Grizzly was based on his exploits. Mauled by a grizzly, he was in a coma and left for dead by his comrades when a party of Arikara attacked. He woke, set his own broken leg, lay on a rotting log to let maggots eat the infection in the claw wounds on his back, then proceeded to crawl 200 miles to the nearest settlement without any weapons or provisions. After recuperating, he returned to the wild for more adventure. He was eventually killed in an Indian attack in 1833.
Another important figure, John “Liver-Eating” Johnson (1824–1900), was late to the mountain man lifestyle. He worked through Wyoming and Montana, trapping and hunting beaver, wolves, and buffalo. He was a free trapper, not affiliated with any fur company. Johnson was a large, aggressive man who sparked numerous rumors, legends, and campfire tales. Elements of his story are portrayed in the film Jeremiah Johnson (1972), and numerous biographies have been authored.
There was little room for prejudice in the fur trade because survival depended on cooperation. As a result, there were a number of black mountain men. Jim Beckwourth (1800–1866) had his life story published in 1856, and it is still available today. Born into slavery, he became a mountain man when freed by his father. He lived with the Crow for years, married a native woman, and became a war chief. His autobiography, while filled with extreme stories of his exploits, gives a rather accurate view of life among the Crow.
Exploration
Mountain men are an important symbol of America’s historic “wild frontier.” While myths and larger-than-life stories about these men abound, they also played an important role in westward expansion.
While free trappers sometimes roamed the wilderness alone, most mountain men were employed by fur companies. A free trapper was one of the most skilled outdoorsmen, adapting the methods and equipment of both earlier frontiersmen and the Plains tribes. He might travel with a group for safety, but once in the mountains, would travel and trap where he liked and sell his furs wherever he chose. Trappers employed by fur companies were more militarized. The men worked and trapped in groups and reported to the head of each “brigade.”
The first American fur trading expedition was formed by John Jacob Astor, who hoped to establish a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River. Information gathered by the Lewis and Clark expedition was used to guide the group over land. On their return trip, they laid the groundwork for the Oregon Trail by finding the South Pass through the Rocky Mountains. Other fur companies claimed ranges through the southwest, the Rockies, and the upper Midwest. Mountain men were critical in opening various Emigrant Trails, which were widened into wagon roads by the mountain men and the fur companies to serve the mule trains used to bring pelts to trading posts. The beaver trade rapidly declined from overtrapping and reduced consumer demand, eventually leaving the mountain men in need of a new source of income. Guiding wagon trains of settlers heading west and government surveying expeditions provided a new source of employment requiring their special skills. Others joined the military, acting as guides, and more importantly, a source of knowledge about Native American tribes. Mountain men had a great deal of experience in dealing with various tribes and understood their ways. Most could speak at least one native dialect and could communicate via sign language.
The stereotypical mountain man is generally shown dressed in buckskin and a coonskin cap, with bushy facial hair and a weapon in his hand. In actuality, most trappers were ethnically, socially, and religiously diverse. Typical dress included leather breeches and shirts, covered with woolen hats and cloaks. They frequently wore moccasins, but carried heavy boots for rough terrain. Each mountain man carried the same basic gear, including arms and ammunition, knives and hatchets, canteens and cookware, and supplies of tobacco, salt, coffee, and pemmican. Other than coffee, food generally duplicated the regional native diet. They often traded with the tribes for prepared foods to supplement their hunting. Horses or mules were essential for carrying supplies and furs.
Jeremiah Johnson (1970)
Ironically, perhaps the most well known of the mountain men was the fictional Jeremiah Johnson, played by Robert Redford in the iconic 1970 Sydney Pollack film of the same name. Folklore, however, can be stranger than fiction: Jeremiah Johnson was loosely based upon the 1965 novel Mountain Man and a story called “Crow Killer,” which details the vengeance wrought by “Liver-Eating Johnson” upon the Crow people after they slaughtered his Blackfoot wife. This is based on a historical figure shrouded in folklore. According to the legend, Liver-Eating Johnson earned his name by ambushing and killing dozens and dozens of Crow warriors, ritually removing and eating a piece of the liver of each of his victims. As in the Pollack film, the real-life Johnson is known to have been a veteran of the Mexican-American War, and in fact also fought in the Civil War. Liver-Eating Johnson died in 1900.
C. Fee
Historical Reenactment
Even in the present day, the general public is still fascinated by the exploits of these mountain men. Their skills, courage, and bravery are legendary. Various groups meet annually at modern-day rendezvous points to reenact the dress and lifestyle of mountain men. Sometimes called buckskinning, these reenactments are often held at or near the sites of the original events. Participants reenact all aspects of mountain man life for a few days, wearing buckskin and hides, cooking over a campfire started with a flint and steel, using pack horses or mules, throwing knives or tomahawks into targets, and shooting muzzle-loading rifles. Today’s Rocky Mountain Rendezvous and other reenacted events are both social and history-oriented occasions held in honor of these extraordinary men. The image and lifestyle of mountain men have contemporary appeal, as seen in the popularity of television programs such as the Discovery Channel’s Alaska: The Last Frontier (2011– ) and others that dramatize life in the wilderness.
Jill M. Church
See also Boone, Daniel; Bridger, Jim; Carson, Kit; Crockett, Davy; Lewis and Clark Expedition
Further Reading
Crutchfield, James A. 1999. “When Mountain Men Ruled the West.” Wild West 11 (6): 28.
Laycock, George. 1996. The Mountain Men: The Dramatic History and Lore of the First Frontiersmen. New York: Lyons & Burford.
Maguire, James H., Peter Wild, and Donald Barclay, eds. 1997. A Rendezvous Reader: Tall, Tangled, and True Tales of the Mountain Men, 1805–1850. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Scaliger, Charles. 2010. “John Colter: The First Mountain Man.” New American 26 (2): 35–38.
Underwood, Lamar, ed. 2004. Tales of the Mountain Man: Seventeen Stories of Survival, Exploration, and Frontier Spirit. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press.
Utley, Robert M. 1997. A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific. New York: Henry Holt.
Mountain Men—Primary Document
Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth (1892)
The American West proved to be fertile ground for generating legendary figures, both real and imaginary. Vast stretches of prairie, wide rivers, and towering mountains presented obstacles that eventually were overcome through tremendous feats of courage and strength by America’s early mountain men. These stories grew in the retelling, as in the Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, excerpted below. As this portion of the text shows, Beckwourth survived nature’s rigors partly though his own strength of will, but also through the kindness and compassion of local Native Americans.
Chapter III
MY companion and myself took counsel together how to proceed. Our determination was to make the best of our way to the Grand Ne-mah-haw River, one of the tributaries of the Missouri. We arrived at that river after nine days travel, being, with the exception of a little coffee and sugar, entirely without provisions. My companion was worn out, and seemed almost disheartened. I was young and did not feel much the worse for the journey, although I experienced a vehement craving for food. Arrived at the river, I left Harris by a good fire, and, taking my rifle, went in quest of game, not caring what kind I met.
As Fortune would have it, I came across an elk, and my rifle soon sent a leaden messenger after him. We encamped near him, promising ourselves a feast. He was exceedingly poor, however, and, hungry as we were, we made a very unsavoury supper off his flesh. The next morning we continued our journey down the Ne-mah-haw, travelling on for five days after I had killed the elk without tasting food. The elk had been so rank that we carried no part of him with us, trusting to find some little game, in which we were disappointed. We had thrown away our blankets to relieve ourselves of every burden that would impede our progress, which, withal, was extremely slow.
On the fifth day we struck a large Indian trail, which bore evident marks of being fresh. My companion now gave entirely up, and threw himself to the ground, declaring he could go no farther. He pronounced our position to be thirty miles from the trading-post. I endeavoured to arouse him to get up and proceed onward, but he could only advance a few rods at a time. I felt myself becoming weak; still, I had faith that I could reach Ely’s, if I had no hindrance; if I lingered for Harris, I saw we should both inevitably perish. He positively declared he could advance not a step farther; he could scarcely put one foot before the other, and I saw he was becoming bewildered.
In the dilemma I said to him, “Harris, we must both perish if we stay here. If I make the best of my way along this trail, I believe I can reach Ely’s some time in the night” (for I was aware that the Indians, whose trail we were following, were proceeding thither with their peltry).
But Harris would not listen to it.
“Oh, Jim,” he exclaimed, “don’t leave me; don’t leave me here to die! For God’s sake, stay with me!”
I did my best to encourage him to proceed; I assisted him to rise, and we again proceeded upon our journey.
I saw, by the progress we were making, we should never get on; so I told him, if I had to advance and leave him, to throw himself in the trail, and await my return on the following day with a good horse to carry him to the trading-post. We walked on, I a hundred yards in advance, but I became convinced that if I did not use my remaining strength in getting to Ely’s, we should both be lost.
Accordingly, summoning all my forces, I doubled my speed, determined to reach the post before I stopped. I had not proceeded half a mile ere I heard the report of two rifles, and, looking in the direction of the sound, I saw two Indians approaching with demonstrations of friendship.
On reaching me, one of them exclaimed, “You are dead—you no live!”
I explained to him that I had left my companion behind, and that we were both nearly starved to death. On this they spoke a few words to each other in their own language, and one started off like a race-horse, along the trail, while the other returned with me to my companion.
As we approached him I could hear him moaning, “Ho, Jim! come back! come back! don’t leave me!”
We went up to him, and I informed him that we were safe; that I had met the Indians, and we should soon be relieved.
After waiting about three hours, the rattling of hoofs was heard, and, looking up, we discovered a troop of Indians approaching at full speed. In another moment they were by our side. They brought with them a portion of light food, consisting of corn-meal made into a kind of gruel, of which they would give us but a small spoonful at short intervals. When Harris was sufficiently restored to mount a horse with the assistance of the Indians, we all started forward for the post.
It appeared that the two Indians whom I had so fortunately encountered had lingered behind the main party to amuse themselves with target-shooting with their rifles. The one that started along the trail overtook the main body at a short distance, and, making our case known to them, induced them to return to our succour.
We encamped with them that night, and they continued the same regimen of small periodic doses of gruel. Several times a large Indian seized hold of an arm of each of us, and forced us into a run until our strength was utterly exhausted. Others of the party would then support us on each side, and urge us on till their own strength failed them. After this discipline, a spoonful or two of gruel would be administered to us. This exercise being repeated several times, they at length placed before us a large dish containing venison, bear-meat, and turkey, with the invitation to eat all we wanted. It is unnecessary to say that I partook of such a meal as I never remember to have eaten before or since.
Early the next day we arrived at the trading-post of Ely and Curtis, situate on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Kansas. As I entered the house, I heard some one exclaim, “Here comes Jim Beckwourth and Black Harris,” the name he went by where he was known.
Ely sprang up to welcome us. “Sure enough,” said he, “it is they; but they look like corpses.” Another voice exclaimed, “Halloo, Jim! what is the matter with you? Is it yourselves, or only your ghosts? Come along and take some brandy, any way; living or dead, you must be dry.”
We accepted the invitation, and took each a glass, which, in our greatly reduced state, quite overpowered us. Left to my reflections, I resolved that, if I survived my present dangers, I would return to civilized life. The extremities I had been reduced to had so moderated my resentments that, had I encountered my former boss, I should certainly have extended my hand to him with ready forgiveness.
Source: Beckwourth, James Pierson. The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians. Dictated by T. D. Bonner. New York: Macmillan & Co, 1892.